Transpacific spot rates have made the China–US West Coast route the most lucrative major trade for spot cargo from Shanghai, according to Alphaliner. Over the past six months, the container shipping market has experienced very strong spot rates. Initially driven by an early and strong peak season, rates on some trades, however, kept climbing well […]
Liner service instability has increased significantly across major deep-sea container trades since the pandemic, with Asia-Europe routes showing the largest deterioration compared with pre-pandemic conditions. Sea-Intelligence measures instability using the standard deviation in the number of weekly offered services, expressed as a percentage of the average number of services. This allows changes in service availability […]
Container shipping capacity has reached unprecedented levels across major East-West trade lanes, with deployed supply rising sharply in October and November 2026 instead of following the usual late-year seasonal decline. According to the latest Sea-Intelligence commentary, average weekly capacity on Asia-Europe has moved well above historical patterns. Normally, deployed supply contracts after Golden Week as […]
Global bunker prices continued their upward trend in October, driven by Middle East tensions, disrupted oil supplies and tight fuel availability across major bunkering hubs. The MABUX 380 HSFO Index increased by USD 76.75 to USD 778.42/MT, while the VLSFO Index gained USD 70.81 to reach USD 913.07/MT, surpassing the USD 900 threshold. Meanwhile, the […]
Global schedule reliability improved slightly in September 2026, ending a three-month run of consecutive declines, according to the latest Sea-Intelligence Global Liner Performance data. Sea-Intelligence reported that schedule reliability increased by 0.9 percentage points month on month to 50.6% in September. The improvement followed three consecutive monthly declines that had reduced reliability by a combined […]
The container ship orderbook has climbed above 15 Mteu as LNG dual-fuel vessels take a growing share of newbuilding capacity, according to Alphaliner. The global container vessel orderbook has recently breached the 15 Mteu mark. Before the end of the year, another 40 or so ‘megamax’ newbuilding contracts from Maersk, Yang Ming (both expected soon), […]
The container shipping outlook is becoming more challenging as global trade growth slows while a large amount of new vessel capacity continues to enter the market. In its latest Sunday Spotlight commentary, Sea-Intelligence examines the IMF’s October 2026 World Economic Outlook from a container shipping perspective. The IMF expects world trade volume growth to ease […]
On 19 November 2023, Houthi rebels hijacked the car carrier GALAXY LEADER in the southern Red Sea, marking the start of their campaign against merchant shipping in response to the armed conflict in Gaza. As the third anniversary of the event that set off the large-scale diversion of container shipping around the Cape of Good […]
Liner network specialization is becoming a more important feature of global container shipping as carriers move away from the highly shared service structures that dominated the market over the previous decade. According to the latest Sea-Intelligence Sunday Spotlight commentary, deep-sea liner networks were once heavily dependent on Vessel Sharing Agreements (VSAs), allowing carriers to pool […]